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Religious leaders take over peace
campaign
By Richel Langit
JAKARTA - Leaders of Indonesia's five officially
recognized religions have taken over the country's peace
campaigns after the administration of President Megawati
Sukarnoputri appeared reluctant to condemn the planned
attack on Iraq by the United States and its allies.
Worried by a possible hostile response to the US
plan to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of weapons
of mass destruction, these religious leaders embarked on
an international campaign against what they and many
other Indonesians see as US hegemony over the world.
They sent delegations to Australia and some European
countries, including the Vatican, with the message that
a war against Iraq was not only unwarranted but also
could trigger radicalism among Muslim communities
throughout the world.
In Australia they met with a
number of lawmakers to convey their opposition to the
planned war. They also urged the Australian lawmakers to
foil Prime Minister John Howard's plan to send
Australian troops to Iraq. In Europe they met with a
number of heads of state, including Pope John Paul II,
during which they told their hosts that disarming Iraq
by force was not in the interest of the international
community. They intentionally skipped the United States,
as they considered its government to be arrogant and
intent on attacking Iraq.
At home, the same
religious leaders regularly issue statements and hold
news conferences, informing the public at large that any
US attack on Iraq has nothing to do with religion, and
that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction do have to be
destroyed, but not by way of a unilateral attack. They
also stressed that they were not against US citizens but
the United States' foreign policies, which they consider
to be discriminatory.
These religious leaders
might not be able to prevent the United States and its
staunchest allies from attacking Iraq, as they continue
to amass troops in the Middle East, but they have
clearly succeeded in convincing the Indonesian public
that the planned war against Iraq has nothing to do with
religion. Such a clear distinction is of paramount
importance in Indonesia, where Christians are sometimes
considered by Muslims to be agents of the West. By
successfully distancing Christianity from the planned
attack on Iraq, the religious leaders have averted
possible conflicts between Muslims, who account for 85
percent of the country's 220 million people, and
Christians, who account for slightly over 10 percent of
the population.
The same religious leaders have
clearly succeeded, at least for the time being, in
suppressing attempts by some militant Muslim groups in
the country to turn the Iraqi war into a religious
issue, a move that would not only plunge Indonesia into
another round of religious conflict but also would also
threaten the country's national unity.
Anti-US
protests do happen sporadically throughout the world's
biggest Muslim country, some of them organized by
militant Muslim groups, but the issue they press is no
longer a clash between the West or Christianity and the
East or Islam but humanism. In most cases, Muslims and
Christians are joining hands in organizing anti-US
protests, something that never took place when
Indonesian Muslims organized street rallies after United
States started bombing Afghanistan.
The US and
its allies are mostly likely to attack Iraq, but so far
Indonesian intelligence officials say they have detected
no signs that the attack would trigger massive protests
against the West, let alone degenerate into religious
conflicts.
When the US started bombing
Afghanistan in late 2001, most Muslim leaders here
believed that it was justified in view of terrorist
attacks in Washington and New York in September that
year, which the US government blamed on Muslim cleric
Osama bin Laden and his international terrorist network,
al-Qaeda. But even so, some militant Muslim groups in
Indonesia staged protests almost daily in front of the
US Embassy and those of its allies in Jakarta and their
missions in other big cities. Some even went as far as
launching anti-US sweeps in Muslim-stronghold areas such
as Solo in Central Java and Makassar in South Sulawesi.
The sweeps forced some foreign companies and schools to
halt operations. More than that, the sweeps raised
security fears among foreign investors and kept
much-needed foreign capital at bay.
This time
around Indonesian religious leaders believe that the US
and its allies have no solid ground to attack Iraq. They
are worried that an attack on Iraq would trigger
religious conflicts.
And their fears are
justified. Detained suspects in the Bali bombings, which
killed at least 202 people and injured more than 350
others, told police investigators that they engaged in
such a bloody jihad as a protest against US policies in
dealing with Palestine and Afghanistan. Some of the
suspects had in one way or another participated in
prolonged religious conflicts in Ambon and Poso in
Central Sulawesi. More than 10,000 innocent lives have
been lost in the two areas since the conflicts started
in January 1999.
For many Indonesians, the peace
campaigns of these religious leaders have compensated
for the government's reluctance to condemn the planned
attack on Iraq. Megawati feels that she cannot condemn
the United States publicly as it may hurt bilateral
relations and could prompt the US to stop giving
financial assistance needed to revive Indonesia's
economy. The Megawati government is also afraid that
condemning the US publicly would fan anti-US protests.
Clearly, the religious leaders' campaign has
averted, at least until now, possible religious
conflicts in Indonesia and strengthened solidarity among
the five religions officially recognized by the
constitution: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism,
Buddhism, and Hinduism.
The religious leaders'
success has prompted some political parties, including
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-Perjuangan) and Golkar, to list two of the leaders,
namely Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Mushadi and
Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Maarif, as potential
candidates in the upcoming general election scheduled to
take place between June and August 2004.
(©2003
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